DeepSeek's $15.9B Round Lifts Global Venture Funding to $59B

Two countries, seven mega-deals

Companies in the U.S. raised $28 billion in October, while Chinese companies raised $20.6 billion. China had not seen more than $20 billion in a single month since June 2018, when Ant Group raised $14 billion.

Seven companies with billion-dollar rounds accounted for just over 40% of the month's total. Those deals went to frontier labs, manufacturing, energy, semiconductors, prediction markets and spend management software. Private equity led much of the money, alongside multistage firms such as Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and Lux Capital.

Behind DeepSeek, Massachusetts-based Re:Build raised $2.1 billion for its manufacturing platform. Axiom raised $2 billion for power and grid capacity for data centers, and Ramp raised $1.85 billion while saying its annual recurring revenue has reached $2 billion. Tenstorrent closed a $1.5 billion Series E, Kalshi raised a $1 billion Series E, and frontier lab Flapping Airplanes raised a $1 billion Series A. Moonshot AI reportedly reached a $50 billion valuation and has reportedly filed confidentially for a Hong Kong listing.

AI dominates, Anthropic IPO looms

AI-driven companies took 66% of global funding in October, and semiconductor firms gained share. At least nine venture-backed companies were acquired for more than $1 billion, including Uber's $2.3 billion purchase of ezCater.

The U.S. IPO market was slow ahead of Anthropic's expected November listing, which could surpass SpaceX's record June offering of $85.7 billion. With two months left, 2026 has already set records for acquisitions, IPOs and funding rounds. The open question is whether that momentum spreads beyond a handful of very large companies.